- published: 24 Feb 2016
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Dumplings are cooked balls of dough. They are based on flour, potatoes or bread, and may include meat, fish, vegetables, or sweets. They may be cooked by boiling, steaming, simmering, frying, or baking. They may have a filling, or there may be other ingredients mixed into the dough. Dumplings may be sweet or spicy. They can be eaten by themselves, in soups or stews, with gravy, or in any other way. While some dumplings resemble solid water boiled doughs, such as gnocchi, others such as wontons resemble meatballs with a thin dough covering.
Fufu fit the definition of a dumpling in that they are starchy balls of dough that are steamed. Fufu are staples to the diet of many regions of Africa, although they may be known by several other names. The fufu originates in Ghana, where it is often eaten in soups, much like the matzo ball, or with a vegetarian or meat-based stew. An example of the variation of fufu is the banku and kenkey, dumplings formed from fermented cornmeal dough. Banku are boiled while kenkey are partly boiled then finished by steaming in banana leaves. There are several other versions of fufu in Africa and the Caribbean.